Saturday, October 30, 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010

I would just like to take a little bit of time to encourage everyone to vote

glenn for village idiot. He has demonstrated for years now that he is definitely well qualified for the position. His passion for the idiotic arts can't be overlooked in his daily comment saturation of the O. He seems to possess a tourettes like ability to expound upon every article he looks at with complete abandon of all things based in fact and logic. He brings an aggressive east coast approach to his craft that most PNW natives are just too relaxed to match let alone digest. So if you vote for any right wing asshole this season vote

glenn for village idiot.

It should be noted that JoeInDependsVotingBM would have been a stronger contender this year but lacks the consistency for nomination. He has however earned some dishonorable mention.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Our viewing audience increase an additional 15% today from yesterday's 25% increase over the day before.

All the promotion in Daily Newspapers websites owned by McClatchey is paying off. Thanks, Asshat!

There are some very intelligent progressive posters on The News Tribune and we'd welcome them to sign up for an authorship on ThurstonBlog. In addition, we welcome Conservatives with minds that are capable of critical thought and not just spewing the words that they heard on the Glenn Beck Show.

Does it really make you feel that superior to insult someone's intelligence by pointing out a freaking typo in a stupid comments section?
Really?
Because we intelligent people were able to figure that out without making any sort of deal about it. People do it all the time. Nothing to get wee weed up over. Particularly when you have obvious problems with punctuation...

Why do you even respond to the obvious provocation of these asinine comments?

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...an election that hasn't happened yet...
Except voting has already begun in earnest. The FAotUS even electioneered and voted on the 14th.
Having your vote pre-cast for you should "freak-out" anyone who holds dear the right to vote. Many people fought and died for it. Some of us don't take it lightly.
You should be ashamed for doing so.

... Halderman and his students pulled off another coup, exposing vulnerabilities in an internet-based system for overseas and military voters that the District of Columbia planned to test in the November election.

"Within 36 hours of the system going live, our team had found and exploited a vulnerability that gave us almost total control of the server software, including the ability to change votes and reveal voters' secret ballots," Halderman wrote on his blog.[snipped]

... Halderman's team "collected crucial secret data stored on the server," "modified all the ballots that had already been cast to contain write-in votes for candidates we selected," "installed a back door that let us view any ballots that voters cast after our attack," and -- best of all -- "left a 'calling card' on the system's confirmation screen, which voters see after voting."[snipped]

To be fair, the people running the D.C. pilot program made a couple of weeks available for outsiders to have a crack at their system. While Halderman and his students did their best in the name of protecting the sanctity of the voting process, it appears that there were others with potentially less-friendly motives also taking advantage of the test period.

Testifying before the D.C. Board of Ethics and Elections -- in a virtually empty room, according to news reports -- Halderman dropped this bomb: "While we were in control of these systems we observed other attack attempts originating from computers in Iran and China. These attackers were attempting to guess the same master password that we did. And since it was only four letters long, they would likely have soon succeeded."

Halderman's team even changed the D.C. system's password (who uses a four-letter password?) to thwart the foreign intrusions.Granted, this was a test and only a test of a small pilot program. But the idea of attempts from outside of the United States to compromise the security of the most basic of American rights should worry anyone who cares about the political process.[snipped]

The Democrats have been in charge of the country for the last four years including Bush’s last two years. Prior to that we had a good economy. The only way we can save the country is vote the bum’s out. I
have already voted and Dino got my vote.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::As seen in yesterday's post, "letters" are the same as "earmarks", and McCain had no qualms about adding a "letter" for stimulus money!! HYPOCRITE!!!!!!!!!::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::McCain attacks Murray on "corrupt" earmarks

Arizona Sen. John McCain held a conference call with reporters this morning to talk up one of Senate candidate Dino Rossi's signature campaign promises - a ban on earmarks.

During the 10-minute call, McCain repeatedly referred to earmarks as "corrupt" or "a gateway to corruption" and criticized Democratic Sen. Patty Murray as one of the biggest purveyors of the pork-barrel spending.

"The fact is the earmarking and pork barreling has got to stop. We have mortgaged our children's futures," McCain said.

Earmarks are directions to spend federal money on a specific project, be it a road, bridge or military boat. They're inserted into spending bills at the behest of individual members of Congress.

That puts members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, like Murray, in a position to direct millions of dollars to favored local projects. It's a process Murray has defended, arguing her seniority brings crucial federal spending to Washington state.

But McCain argues federal spending should be prioritized by need, instead of by who has the most political clout or lobbyists.

He touched on a Seattle Times report about Murray's former staffers turned lobbyists, who are now using their connections to the senator to deliver millions of dollars in Murray-sponsored earmarksto clients -- $20 million worth in a recent defense bill alone.

McCain differed from Rossi on one point. Rossi has said he wants to end earmarks until the federal budget is balanced. McCain says they should just go away forever.

"I think we should stop a corrupt practice," McCain said. "I respectfully disagree with Dino on that issue."

Another longtime anti-earmark crusader, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was also supposed to be on the call, but didn't show up.

Despite all the fury directed at them, earmarks only make up less than one-half of one percent of the federal budget.

That means any serious deficit-cutting plan has to include other big spending cuts -- such as reducing the costs of Medicare and Social Security or ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet Rossi has not talked in detail about those subjects. He also insists on preserving tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans beyond this year, at a cost of $700 billion.

A reporter tried to ask McCain whether Republican deficit-reduction plans would include cuts in big entitlements like Medicare.

But no answer came, as McCain was apparently already off the line. Rossi spokeswoman Jennifer Morris thanked reporters and ended the call.

Within minutes of the conference call's end, the Murray campaign blasted out a news release criticizing Rossi for campaigning with "anti-Boeing McCain,"